Your favourite country and why?

You took a walk down the Gut? Blimey you must have been brave. It’s all deserted now and run down, but yeah, I've heard stories about that part of Valletta. I understand Valletta has won the European Culture Capital for 2018, so I would assume it’s been "tidied up" ready for that. Valletta is a lovely place, a city built inside a fortress, all the streets are in a straight line ala New York, and I did live in St Pauls Street for a very short months. Back in the 90's Valletta would shut down 8pm every night after the last buses had left for the villages, it was like a ghost town overnight, but then come alive again at 5am.

As for Dom Mintoff, I've met him; he's a hell of a character. He's the guy who puts his country first before anyone else, a truly principled politician. If it looked like he was doing his best to annoy the British, well, he was only doing his best for Malta, and if that meant going to Libya or China for assistance, so be it. Underneath all the bluster, Dom really did love the UK (his first wife was British), and that affection for its former colonial master is still evident today. Also politics in Malta was polarised. If 'your' party were in power, anything is possible, but come election time, it was a dangerous place to be - people have died because they were Nationalists or Labourites. My boss was the bodyguard to 2 Labour Prime Ministers of Malta, and he used to tell me stories of how he would, ahem, 'talk' to people who got on the wrong side of Dom Mintoff.

I guess for me it is Thailand, but really for the culture of the place, I had a special place in my heart for all the Buddhist Wats I used to see and the Thais who would give a wai to them as they pass. Bangkok was a bit of a pain because of the constant Tuk-Tuk drivers shouting at you for business, but generally I enjoyed walking around and seeing the place. Totally different from what I was used to and the Philippines doesn't really have the same kind of scenery (but close).

I want to go back one day with Joy, when we're in the area...